AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you always play cards that way, darlin’?” My fingers locked with hers before I slid our arms above her head.
“Always.” Her voice rasped, her words a dire contradiction of the expression that flashed across her face before a lazy smile broke across her mouth, and she sucked in her bottom lip to control it.
“Liar.”
“I beg your pardon. What did you say?”
“You’re lying, Alina. In case you didn’t realize, you have a tell. That delicious little tongue of yours runs along your bottom lip, and sometimes you bite it right after you lie, andthenyou avoid eye contact. That, beautiful girl, is your tell.”
She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Oh, yeah? You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” she scoffed.
“You think I’m not?”
“You have a ‘tell’ too.”
“I do?” I doubted her the same way she’d doubted me moments ago, so I waited for her to answer me and enlighten me on my own tell.
“It’s pressing against my thigh right now, Callum. And it’s kind of hard to miss. Pun intended.” To accentuate her point, Alina wiggled her hips against me, the soft friction created by her body sending shockwaves straight to my groin.
“Do you remember the promise I made to you when we were sixteen?” Tenderly, I probed her memory. For me, it was at the forefront of my mind. A promise made that had yet to be fulfilled left the feeling of emptiness, a mixture of discontent and failure, like acid burning holes in my resolve.
Her eyes widened as she recalled the promise we’d made, her mouth falling open into the perfect O.
“Callum, that was in another lifetime. No one expects anyone to keep a promise they made over a decade ago.”
“I keep all my promises. Sometimes it just takes a little longer to fulfill some of them.”
“Like the promise you made to my mother, how you kept that one?”
Her brows drew down, and I caught a glimpse of pain behind her eyes before it disappeared.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
I released her hands and sat back on my knees with her still caged between my legs. “It appears we still have issues to resolve. Am I right?”
“No, I just… I’m sorry, okay?”
“Alina, if there is something you need to get off your chest, I’d rather you just say it.”
She let out a heavy sigh. The mood between us darkened, and the sparks fizzled out.
“Why did she come to you? Why didn’t she come to me?”
My heart clenched at the confusion and pain displayed in her furrowed brow so clearly across her beautiful face. I wished I had the answers she needed for the closure she so desperately sought.
“I wish I could answer that. She had her mind made up, and I guess she knew how much I loved you, even back then. Maybe she was scared of what it could do to you.”
“Why is it easier to forgive but almost impossible to forget?” she asked, her eyes fluttering closed as she rested her arm over her forehead, blocking her captivating emerald green eyes from my view.
Moving off her, I rolled to the side, nearly mirroring her body position as I stared at the dim ceiling, searching for the answer to her question.
Was there even one?
ChapterTwenty-Five
Callum
“How do you make peace with the past?” Alina rolled toward me, her hand tucked under her cheek as she took me in from beneath her lashes.
